Combination stop mechanism



May 24, 1965 w. 1.. FRITZ 3,253,091

COMBINATION STOP MECHANISM Filed May 5, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. WILLIAM L. FRITZ,

BY 8 7 .3 a Jute:

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,253,091 COMBINATION STOP MECHANISM William L. Fritz, Hamilton County, Ohio, assignor to D. H. Baldwin Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed May 5, 1964, Ser. No. 364,977 10 Claims. '(Cl. 2005) The invention has to do with combination stop means for electrical musical instruments of the organ type. The person skilled in the art will understand that such electrical musical instrument include a rank of generators for producing electrical oscillations related to each other as the notes of the tempered musical scale, means including playing keys (usually organized into one or more manuals and 'a pedal clavier) for deriving oscillations in accordance with the requirements of a musical composi tion, collecting means for the oscillations so derived, an output system including an appropriate amplifier and one or more loud speakers, and a series of tone color circuits interposed between the collecting means and the output system for modifying the voice or timbre of the tones produced by the instrument. The stop switches are controlled by stop tabs or other means operable by the musician. I By depressing any one or more of the stop tabs the instrument can be caused to speak in various voices or combinations of the voices.

The term generators of electrical oscillations as employed herein is intended to be broad enough to include mechanico-electrical generating devices such as tone wheels or the like, a series or rank of electrical oscillators, at least one for each note, sometimes including a master oscillator which controls the frequencies in octave relationship of a plurality of slave oscillators, and indeed any electrical or mechanico-electrical means for producing the desired oscillations. In some types of instrument monophonic effects may be produced by employing a variable frequency oscillator and means connected with the key switches to cause the oscillator to produce electical vibrations at frequencies appropriate to the keys, or use may be made of a series of twelve oscillators related to each other as the notes of the tempered musical scale together with frequency-dividing or frequency-multiplying means connected with each such oscillator.

The musician will frequently desire to use a combination of voices at certain times in the playing of a musical composition; but it takes time to actuate in succession a relatively large number of stop tabs so as to connect a number of voicing circuits to the output system and dis connect others. As a consequence it has hitherto been suggested that certain preset combinations of the voices be arranged for derivation through the actuation of a single stop tab, plunger or the like.

Where this has been done it is usual to provide a plurality of stop tabs, one for each of the present combinations of voices and to interconnect these stop tabs by mechanical means of mutually exclusive character, i.e., so arranged that the actuation of one stop tab in the group will de-actuate the others. The provision of preset combination stop means has hitherto been a matter of considerable expense not only because of the elaborateness of the mechanical means employed but also because each stop tab is required to operate a plurality of electrical switches corresponding in number to the voices to be combined in the preset combination. Moreover, the provision of preset combination stop tabs in addition to the stop tabs for the derivation of individual voices, takes up considerable room on the voicing panel of the instrument.

It is a basic object of this invention to provide a very much simplified and less expensive preset combination stop "ice means which has the necessary feature of mutual ex clusivity and in which the provision of a large number of switches is neither complicated no-r costly.

It is an object of the invention to provide a combination stop means having the above advantages which, at the same time, is small in size. While the stop means of this invention can be operated by stop tabs without departing from the spirit of it, it is especially adapted for operation by plungers or buttons which may be located beneath the manuals to which they pertain, so as to be accessible to the musician with a minimum of motion. Thus it is not necessary in the practice of this invention to locate any portion of the combination stop mechanism on a voicing panel above the manuals or on voicing panels at the ends of manuals, although either of these locations may be chosen if desired. The location of combination stop mechanisms elsewhere than on voicing panels is of very great advantage in the more complex organ type instruments where a large number of stop tabs or equivalent means are provided for control of the individual voices.

It is an object of the invention to provide improvements in mutually exclusive switch mechanisms as such, and in particular to provide means forming a part of the switch mechanism for returning any depressed plunger to its unactuated position upon the depression of any other plunger in the group.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a combination stop mechanism of such compact and simplified character that the number of preset combinations can be multiplied without a large or significant increase in cost.

It is an object of the invention to provide in plungeroperated devices a clearing button which serves not only to return to unactuated position any previously depressed plunger of the group but also to reconnect the various voicing circuits for the manual or clavier to their own I individual stop tabs.

These and other objects of the invention which will be set forth hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, are attained by -that construction and arrangement of parts of which an exemplary embodiment will now be described in detail. Reference is made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an exemplary combination stop mechanism of this invention.

FIG. 2 is an end elevation thereof.

FIG. 3 is a rear plan view.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of one of the plunger 'bodies.

FIG. 5 is an isometric view of a stationary supporting means for the flexible strand elements hereinafter described.

'FIG. 6 is a partial view of the msulative panel employed in the switch mechanism, and

FIG. 7 is a partial isometric view of one of the bracket means which are attached to the edges of the insulative panel in the assembled device.

For the sake of an exemplary showing herein the invention will be described in connection with that type of electrical musical instrument which is set forth in United States Patent No. 2,233,948 in the name of Kock. Reference to that patent is made for a showing of generating means, playing keys and key switches, collecting headers, voicing circuits controlled by stop tab switches, and a diagrammatic showing of an output system. It should be understood, however, that the utility of this invention is not confined to the exemplary musical instrument. It will also be understood that a preset combination stop switch device in accordance with the present invention may be provided for only one manual of the instrument or that separate devices may be provided for each manual,

and also for the pedal clavier if desired. The several combination stop switch mechanisms in any one instrument may differ from each other either in the number of plungers provided, or in the number of switches actuated by each plunger, or both; and it will be within the skill of the worker in the art in the light of the teachings herein to increase or decrease the number of plungers and switch means in any of the preset combination stop assemblies.

Briefly in the practice of this invention an assembly is made comprising an insulative panel which is traversed by a plurality of bar-like elements, alternate ones of which are stationary while the intermediate ones are mounted for longitudinal sliding motion and have bearings in slots formed in brackets attached to the edges of the insulative panel. The brackets also furnish a means by which the preset combination mechanism may be mounted to a suitable support in the instrument, with end portions of the movable bars projecting through a panel (not shown). The projecting ends of the movable bars are fitted with operating buttons as later described. Both the stationary and the movable bars are provided with spaced holes, and a plurality of flexible strand-like elements are threaded through these holes so that each such element passes through each bar. The ends of the strandlike elements are anchored by being soldered to studs grommeted into holes in the end portions of the insulative panel. The arrangement is such that the depression or movement of any one of the movable bars will deflect the flexible strand element between the stationary bars on either side of the depressed bar. If thereafter another movable bar is depressed it will deflect the strandlike elements between another pair of the stationary bars; and the strand-like elements will act tensionally to return the first-actuated movable bar to its undepressed position.

The strand-like elements are electrically conductive, so that they may be used as parts of switches operated upon the depression of a movable bar, i.e., the deflected portion of a strand-like element engages in the deflected position at least one flexible contact means mounted in a grommet on the insulative panel. Thus the switch mechanism of this invention is extremely simple; and the number of switches may be multiplied as respects the movable bars by providing a larger number of the flexible strand elements, and by increasing the length of the several bars and the width of the insulative panel as may be necessary. The number of bars, each being for predetermined voice combination may be increased as desired by prolonging the length of the insulative panel and the length but not necessarily the number of the flexible strand-like elements. It is generally preferred to provide two flexible electrical contact means in each space between stationary bars, one of such contact means being located on either side of its movable bar. The function of the deflected portion of a strand-like element is to connect adjacent flexible contact elements electrically and to connect them to the strand-like elements so that the individual contact elements can be connected to different voicing circuits, or to the same voicing circuit for the sake of reliability.

While the strand-like elements may be made of various conductive materials, including wires, flat strands and the like, best results are achieved by making the flexible strands in the form of elongated small diameter coiled springs with the convolutions in substantial or complete contact. The springs themselves may be formed of Phosphor bronze or beryllium-copper wires coated with silver or some other metal appropriate for contact purposes. The strand-like elements in the form indicated are substantially incompressible axially, and the arrangement is such that in the operation of the device the springs have an effective length between anchors to permit deflection between one adjacent pair of the stationary bars while maintaining a rectilinear configuration elsewhere, and the holes in the bars are such that the spring-like strands are not subjected to tension suflicient to eifect any substantial separation of the convolutions. Strand-like elements convoluted as described have been found to be positive in action but not subject to the fatigue which diminishes the life of other strand-like elements.

Referring to the several figures of the drawings, an insulative panel is indicated at 1. This panel has at its side edges a plurality of holes 2 and 3 for the acceptance of bolts, rivets or other means by which the panel may be mounted to the lower leg 4 of substantially Z shaped bracket means shown in FIG. 7 and indicated generally by the numeral 5. The bracket means has an intermediate angularly related portion 6 and an upper bent over flange 7 which is slotted or perforated as at 8 to permit the flange 7 to be mounted against a suitable support (not shown) in the instrument. The intermediate portion 6 of the bracket means is slotted as at 9 to accept reduced end ports of the bars hereinafter described, and in the case of the movable bars the slots 9 act as bearing means to guide the longitudinal movement of the bars.

A movable bar is shown at 10 in FIG. 4 having a body and reduced end portions 11 and 12 the latter of which is of greater length. The body of the bar will itself have an appropriate length and will be provided with a series of equally spaced holes 13 for the passage of the strand like elements. The greater length of the reduced portion 12 is such as to permit this portion to extend beyond the adjacent bracket flange 7, Where it may be provided with an operating button such as is shown at 14 in FIG. 1.

The stationary bars as shown at 15 in FIG. 5 have bodies as indicated and reduced end portions 16 and 17 adapted to be engaged in slots 9 of the bracket means. The stationary bars are, however, held against longitudinal movement by the engagement of a lateral tongue 18 on the body portion of each of such bars in one of the slots 19 formed in the insulative panel 1. The bodies of the stationary bars are provided with holes 20 spaced as are the holes 13 in the movable bars and 'of the same number. As will be clear from FIG. 1 the flexible strand elements 21 each pass through one of the holes 20 in the stationtary Ears and through one of the holes 13 in the movable ars.

To complete the description of the insulative panel (FIG. 6), it will be provided at its respective ends with rows of holes, one of which is indicated at 22 in the figure. 'I hese rows of holes are for the reception of grommeted studs (23 in FIGS. 1 and 2) which serve as anchoring means for the strand-like elements 21, which are soldered to the studs near the strand ends. The grommeting means 23a engage contact elements (.24 in FIGS. 2 and 3) to which electrical conductors may be soldered. Intermediate the rows of holes at the ends of the insulative panels there are rows of paired holes 25, 25a etc. ap- Ipropriately located for the provlision of the flexible con-tact elements to which reference has been made above. Grommets 26 are fastened in these holes and also engage contact elements 27 extending outwardly from the rear face of the panel. These contact elements are substantially like the elements 24 and are suitable for the attachment of electrical conductors by soldering. The flexible contact elements themselves (which are shown in FIG. 1 at 28 in the undeflected condition and at 29 in the deflected condition) are preferably formed of the same convoluted material as are the strand-like elements '2 1. Short lengths of this material are placed within the central perforations of the grommets 26 and are soldered thereto. The spring-like material of the flexible contacts 29 is fatigue resistant and causes the contacts to return positively to the undeflected position as at 28, in which they are not contacted by the strand-like elements 21 unless theseelements are themselves deflected as shown adjacent the actuated plunger 14a in FIG. 1.

It will be evident from the above description that the deflected portions of the strand-like elements 21 are not in tension and therefore do not tend to return the deflected plunger 14a to nonmal position unless and until another plunger is actuated or depressed. Thereupon the strand-like elements will return the first depressed plunger, but will retain the second depressed plunger in depressed posit-ion. Screw means acting to fasten the edges of the insulative panel to the lower flange of the bracket means 4 have been indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2 at 30. The plungers-may be provided with collar means 31 acting to fix the undep-ressed positions of the plungers.

It will be appreciated that the structure above described is a mutually exclusive switching mechanism of low cost. The actuation of any plunger will return any previously actuated plunger; but there will always be a plunger in the actuate-d position. In the use of the mechanism for deriving predetermined combinations of voices in the output system of the instrument, it is desira'b'le therefore to establish one of the plungers as a clearing plunger, returning the manual to a condition for voicing by the separate operation of the stop tabs which are individual to the diflerent voices within the range of the instrument.

While the mechanism of this invention may be employed in various ways, it is believed that one mode of operation will be clear to the skilled worker in the art from the explanation above and from a consideration of the organ system of the recited Kock patent.

The instrument will have as to any clavier a plurality of voicing circuits each with an individual stop tab and switch. 'I hese circuits, when the stop tab switches are closed, feed variously modified oscillations to headers whence they pass to an output system or systems. The strandalike elements 23 of the device of this invention may be regarded as the header means and will be connected (through the terminals 24) to one or more ouput system-s.

One of the illustrated plungers, say the left-hand plunger in FIG. 1, will be utilized as a clearing plunger, and for this purpose the various stop switches of the clavier will be connected toone or more or the flexible contact means appropriate to the left-hand plunger. When the left-hand plunger is in the actuated position, its contact means so connected will be engaged by the strand elements 23 so that circuits can be kept from the voicing means to the output system or systems as the stop tab switches are closed. This sets up the instrument for operation by the normal stop tab switches.

When the clearing plunger is in the unactuated position, contact between the strands 23 and the flexible contact means is broken so that a closed or open position of the stop tab switches is no longer controlling. Thus an advantage of the device herein disclosed is that when the clearing plunger is de actuated by the actuation of another plunger in the group any voicing circuits previously connected to the output system or systems will be disconnected therefrom, and the instrument will be cleared for the obtaining of any of the preset voicing combinations.

The flexible contact means 28, 29 of the other plungers in the group will be connected to selected voicing circuits for desired voicing combinations. The last mentioned connections are made to the voicing circuits ahead of the normal stop tab switches so as to bypass these switches. When a second plunger is depressed not only will the clearing plunger be returned to unactuated position, clearing the instrument, but also a preset combination of voices will be established through the switch means appurtenant to the second plunger. Various ones of the voicing circuits for the clavier will be connected to one or more oi" the flexible contact means 28, 29 of the other plungers, normally in a selective fashion, i.e., in such a way that the actuation of one plunger will give a combination of string voices, another a combination of woodwind voices, yet another a combination of full organ voices etc. The wiring for these purposes has not been indicated, in order to avoid complication in the drawings.

It has previously been indicated that the strand-like elements 23 act as headers. This makes it possible to correlate different oscillations in diflerent headers, for example to feed two foot oscillations into one or more of the headers, four foot oscillations into others, eight foot oscillations into still others and so on. Special voicing means can be connected between groups of the headers and the output system as will be readily understood by the worker in the art, and the out-phasing means taught in the Keck patent referred to above may be employed in connection with the preset stop mechanism of this invention.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. In a switch mechanism of the character described, an insulative base, a plurality of insulative bar elements extending transversely of said base and provided with mating perforations, a plurality of anchoring elements adjacent the ends of said insulative base, strand elements passing through the holes in the said bar elements and attached to their ends to said anchoring elements, alternate ones of said bar elements being fixed in position and the intermediate ones being longitudinally slidable, and having an actuated position and an unactuated position, the arrangement being such that said strand elements will be concurrently deflected between adjacent ones of said fixed bar elements, by a slidable bar element in said actuated position, and flexible contact means mounted on said insulative base in positions to be contacted by said strand elements when deflected.

2. The structure claimed in claim v1 wherein said anchoring elements for said strand elements comprise grommetted studs extending through said base and including conta'ct elements affixed to said grommetted studs and extending downwardly from the bottom suriace of said base.

3. The structure claimed in claim 1 including grommets extending through said base, said lfiexible contact means aflixed to said lgrommets and extending upwardly from the top surface of said base, additional contact means aflixed to said grommets and extending downwardly from the bottom surfaceof said base.

4. The structure claimed in claim -1 including spaced bracket means aflixed to said base and extending along those edges 'lying transversely of said bar elements, said bracket means having mating slots, said slidable bar elements having reduce-d end portions, said reduced end portions of said slidable bars extending through said mating slots in said bracket means, whereby said slots act as bearing means to guide said :longitudinal movement or said slidable bars.

'5. Thewstructure claimed in claim 1 wherein said strand elements comprise elongated, flexible, small diameter coiled springs, the convolutions of said springs being in substantial contact.

6. The structure claimed in claim 1 wherein said flexible contact means comprise flexible small diameter coiled springs, the convolutions of said springs being in substantial contact.

7. The structure claimed in claim '1 wherein said contact means comprise a plurality of flexible contact elements, said elements being arranged in rows parallel to said bar elements, each of said rows having a number of said contact elements equal to the number of said strand elements.

8. The structure claimed in claim 1 wherein said strand elements have an eflective length between said anchoring elements to permit deflection of said strand elements between any one adjacent pair of said fixed bars while maintaining a rectilinear configuration throughout the remainder of their length, whereby movement of one of said slidable bars to said actuated position will cause any other of said bars in said actuated position to return to said unactuated position.

9.. The structure claimed in claim 4 wherein one of said reduced end portions on each of said slida ble bars is elongated, and wherein an actuating button is affixed to each of said elongated end portions.

10. The structure claimed in claim 7 wherein one of said rows of contact elements lies between each adjacent ones of said fixed and said slidable bar elements, whereby two of said contact elements are contacted by each of said strand elements when deflected.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Wantzel 200 s X Spicer 2005 Bow-man 200-5 Mann et al -2 200-166 X 10 KATHLEEN H. CLAFFY, Primary Examiner.

M. GINSBURG, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A SWITCH MECHANISM OF THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED, AN INSULATIVE BASE, A PLURALITY OF INSULATIVE BAR ELEMENTS EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF SAID BASE PROVIDED WITH MATING PERFORATIONS, A PLURALITY OF ANCHORING ELEMENTS ADJACENT THE ENDS OF SAID INSULATIVE BASE, STRAND ELEMENTS PASSING THROUGH THE HOLES IN THE SAID BAR ELEMENTS AND ATTACHED TO THEIR ENDS TO SAID ANCHORING ELEMENTS, ALTERNATE ONES OF SAID BAR ELEMENTS BEING FIXED IN POSITION AND THE INTERMEDIATE ONES BEING LONGITUDINALLY SLIDABLE, AND HAVING AN ACTUATED POSITION AND AN UNACTUATED POSITION, THE ARRANGEMENT BEING SUCH THAT SAID STRAND ELEMENTS WILL BE CONCURRENTLY DEFLECTED BETWEEN ADJACENT ONES OF SAID FIXED BAR ELEMENTS, BY A SLIDABLE BAR ELEMENT IN SAID ACTUATED POSITION, AND FLEXIBLE CONTACT MEANS MOUNTED ON SAID INSULATIVE BASE IN POSITIONS TO BE CONTACTED BY SAID STRAND ELEMENTS WHEN DEFLECTED. 